Ohio History Journal

THE ARCHAIC CULTURES AND THE ADENA PEOPLE*

by WILLIAM S. WEBB

Head, Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky

The Early Hunters

Early man in America cannot boast a record of great antiquity.

There is no evidence to suggest his development from more primitive

ancestors, in very ancient times, as is the case of man's record in

the Old World.

Early man in America was a migrant, coming to this continent

from Siberia as a hunter of big game some time between 10,000

and 20,000 years ago. This was in the Pleistocene Period, the

Ice Age. During the last of the four great periods of glaciation,

the great polar ice cap had pushed down a thick layer of ice,

which, when it reached its southernmost thrust about the line of

the Ohio River, had an edge about 800 feet thick. The thickness

increased to the northward, so that at Chicago the ice has been

estimated to have had a thickness of 1,000 feet. Thus we believe

that the Pleistocene vertebrates, natives of the North, like the

mammoth and the muskox, had been pushed southward to mingle

with the herds of the southern species like the mastodon, wild

pig, various species of antelope, horse, bison, the giant sloths, and

many others. Below the southern limit of glaciation these animals

found abundant vegetation for pasture browsing, and their gather-

ing in some concentration produced a hunters' paradise.

Early man, in the Pleistocene, had already learned in Asia how

to live as a hunter of big game by following the herds of these

great vertebrates as they moved about, always seeking better pastures.

There is some evidence to show that some of these species of large

vertebrates migrated to North America from Asia in the Pleistocene.

Thus early man, by simply following the herds on which he fed,

may have been led to the great hunting grounds of central North

* This and the two articles following were given as papers in a joint session on

"Prehistoric Indians of the Ohio Valley" at the annual meeting of the Mississippi

Valley Historical Association held at Cincinnati, April 19-21, 1951.

173

174 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

174 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

America. His route to America by way of Bering Sea has long

been a matter of speculation. He probably could have come over

the sea by an ice bridge. It is not impossible that he could have

walked over from Siberia to Alaska dry shod, since the ocean

level must have been about 250 feet lower then than it is now,

because so much water was locked up in the great ice cap piled

high on the continents.

Recent finds of artifacts in the Mackenzie River Valley suggest

that the Early Hunters came along the northern shores of Alaska

to the valley of the Mackenzie River and thence southward through

Canada, spreading out over our great western plains, and finally

over all the Americas down to the southern tip of South America.

The proof of the Early Hunters' presence in America is based

on the finding of certain types of flint artifacts, projectile points,

and knives in direct association with the fossilized remains of

Pleistocene vertebrates, now long extinct. The first evidence of this

direct association of the artifacts of man with long extinct species

of animals came to light as the result of a discovery near Folsom,

New Mexico, by Dr. Jesse D. Figgins, late director of the Denver

Museum of Natural History, only about twenty-five years ago.

Since that time, other sites showing similar associations have been

found in New Mexico and Colorado, and the characteristic artifacts

have been found from Texas northward through the great plains

into Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River.

In the eastern United States east of the Mississippi River artifacts

not absolutely identical but very similar to those used by the

Early Hunters of the western plains have been found widely scattered

eastward to the Atlantic seaboard. These artifacts are not in asso-

ciation with the remains of Pleistocene fauna, but sites showing

slight concentrations of these artifacts are known in Kentucky,

Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia.

As yet no skeletal remains of these Early Hunters have been

certainly identified. Thus we do not know anything of the man

himself, but the proof of his presence here rests only on the wide-

spread occurrence over all of central North America of a small

group of characteristic flint artifacts, projectile points, knives,

The Archaic Culture and the Adena People 175

The Archaic Culture and the Adena People 175

scrapers, choppers, and gravers, frequently found in association

with the remains of animals long extinct. Thus the evidence sug-

gests certain conclusions. Early man in America was a fearless

hunter of big game. He led a nomadic life, had no permanent home.

He acquired no wealth beyond what he could carry on his back.

He probably changed his camping place with the seasons and as the

migrations of the animal herds made necessary. So far as is known

he did not bury his dead, and he never had at any one place any

concentration of population beyond the small group who hunted

together for mutual protection. He thus left few archaeological

sites, and those generally of quite small size. Recent dating of

some western sites by the use of radioactive carbon seems to con-

firm the belief that by 10,000 years ago the Early Hunters of big

game had reached the western plains. There they did not continue

overlong, but disappeared, leaving no known descendants. Their

fate is unknown. The Pleistocene vertebrate fauna also became ex-

tinct, seemingly not long after man's appearance in North America.

Thus early man raises the unanswered question, Did his coming

to America lead to or in any way cause the extinction of the great

vertebrates, or did their extinction for some other ecological reason,

cause the disappearance of the Early Hunter of central North

America?

Archaic Man

Once the possibility of migrations from Asia in early times is

admitted, it must be reasonable to suppose that these migrations

did not necessarily all occur at the same time, nor did they necessarily

have the same point of origin. It is not astonishing therefore that

we find arriving in North America some time between 5,000 and

7,000 years ago a people whose culture presents a strong contrast

to that of the Early Hunters. These people were of small to average

stature, but of slight, wiry build, who lived by hunting, fishing, and

gathering of nature's bounty. By 5,000 years ago they were spread

all over the whole United States and into Canada. Wherever

natural conditions made possible a sufficient food supply, there

these people gathered in considerable concentration. Some years

176 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

176 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

ago William R. Ritchie, in describing the remains of a site of this

cultural manifestation in New York state, suggested the name of

Archaic Man. This term is now widely used. The record of Archaic

Man is in strong contrast to that of the Early Hunters. He did not

hunt big game, so did not travel across country following the herds

of large vertebrates, if indeed any yet remained when he came to

central North America. He seems to have traveled by the rivers,

probably by simple canoes. Archaic Man was essentially a river

dweller, having discovered how much easier it was to travel on the

river and how much easier it was to get abundant food if he lived

along the river. While evidence of the occupancy of Archaic Man

is widespread over all of North America, it is quite abundant in

the Ohio River Valley, particularly along some of the tributaries

of the Ohio River, where there are today to be found some of the

largest and most important sites of this Archaic manifestation. This

is especially true of the Tennessee River in northern Alabama, the

Green River in Kentucky, and to a somewhat lesser degree the

Wabash River in Indiana. These large sites represent a considerable

concentration of population in a relatively small area, and suggest

a relatively long-continued occupancy of the same site. This is made

possible by the fact that many of the rivers of the central United

States such as the Tennessee, Green, and Wabash, are not too deep

and frequently have shallow portions or shoals with rock bottoms for

many miles, where the stream velocity is relatively slow because

the gradient is not steep. This permitted, in prehistoric times, the

growth of great mussel beds in these shallow sections of the river.

Archaic Man found these great accumulations of shell fish and

recognized them as a natural and never failing source of food, the

year round. Thus if he lived on a river near a shoal, he did not

need to wander far from home, since this food was close at hand,

always abundant, and easily accessible. Thus Archaic Man, coming

to the central United States, traveling by the waterways, soon became

relatively sedentary, dwelling on the river bank always near a shoal

in the river where there was a mussel bed. These shellfish he took

in great quantity, both the pelecypods and gastropods, and ate them,

tossing away the shells. Thus began the building of great shell

The Archaic Culture and the Adena People 177

The Archaic Culture and the Adena People 177

middens, which grew in area as population increased and in depth

as time went on. It is not uncommon to find these great middens

having areas from ten to fifteen acres in extent, and some middens

have been excavated which were twenty-seven feet deep. At specially

favorable sections of a river, these middens are found on both

banks, and a traveler on the river can frequently travel twenty to

thirty miles and never be out of sight of a great shell midden.

Archaic Man lived in a very primitive society. His domestic

life centered about a fireplace built on the midden, frequently on

clean clay carried in from the outside and spread in a flat layer

two to four inches thick over an area some twenty-five feet or more

in diameter. He did not hunt the large vertebrates, such as the elk,

buffalo, and bear, if we are to judge by his campfires, the ashes of

which contain many partially burned and charred bones of deer,

wild turkey, ducks, geese, and many other river fowl; along with

the bones of small mammals, such as squirrel, rabbit, opossum,

coon, fox, and many aquatic animals, as well as fish and the shells

of pelecypods and gastropods. To this diet of meat he added roots,

nuts, and acorns, as shown by their charred hulls, which, by being

carbonized, are well preserved in the ashes. These ashes suggest

that Archaic Man practiced no agriculture, and such food as he had,

other than fish and flesh, he gathered from nature's bounty

with no effort at production. About every campfire on the middens

there is usually to be found a cache of heavy artifacts, made up of

several hammerstones, conical or cylindrical pestles, and fully

grooved axes. These artifacts seem to have been the household tools

used in the preparation of food and in the other activities about the

campfire. Celts are not found in the Archaic. Sometimes on his oc-

cupational levels there are found scattered postmolds of small size

showing no meaningful pattern. This suggests the use of skin-

covered shelters or tents.

Archaic Man buried his dead in "round graves" in the midden,

near his fire hearth, or in circular pits in the earth below the midden.

Rarely he placed artifacts which could be preserved, with the dead,

but frequently covered the body with red ochre. His skeletal remains

reveal that he was rather small of stature and slight in physique.

178 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

178 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

Archaic skulls have well-formed faces and jaws, and show no

deformation. These skeletons show the result of a poor and prob-

ably unbalanced diet. He was afflicted with arthritis, rickets,

osteoporosis, and dental abscesses from the consumption of his

usual gritty fare. Infant mortality was high and the average life

span was short, averaging about twenty-seven to thirty years. Few

ever reached the age of fifty. On one site, only three in more than

800 individuals attained that age.

He did not make or use pottery except possibly in small variety

at the very close of his period. He used chipped flint extensively

for artifacts such as spearpoints, knives, drills, and gravers. He

made spearpoints of bone and antler. He seems not to have used

the bow and arrow, but cast his spear with a throwing stick, or

atlatl. This instrument he made of wood, often with an antler hook

and an antler handle, and frequently added a highly polished stone

or atlatl weight of varied forms. He was a skilled worker in shell,

antler, and bone, both animal and human. He made very little use

of copper. The age of archaic sites in Kentucky has recently been

determined by the use of radioactive carbon as from 4,900 to 5,700

years.

Archaic Man of the shell middens represents the oldest cul-

tural manifestation from which we have available for study the

skeleton of the man himself.

The Adena People

Some time about the beginning of the Christian era there came

into the Ohio Valley, perhaps from Mexico or elsewhere in Central

America, a people who built large earthworks, lived a sedentary

life in fairly large communities, and practiced rudimentary agri-

culture. These were the Adena people, the name being derived

from the name given to the beautiful estate on the Scioto River

near Chillicothe, Ohio, by its owner, Thomas Worthington, gover-

nor of Ohio, 1814-18. William C. Mills in 1902 excavated on this

estate an earth mound built by these people, and called the cul-

tural complex he had found there Adena.

The Archaic Culture and the Adena People 179

The Archaic Culture and the Adena People 179

These people had a highly developed, well organized society,

capable of accomplishing large communal public works; and they

evidently lived under a well understood, widespread, and closely

followed system of rules, regulations, and ceremonial practices.

This people lived practically over the entire drainage area of the

upper Ohio Valley, and large sites are to be found in Indiana, Ohio,

Kentucky, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania.

They were the first agriculturists in this region, having introduced

beans, squash, pumpkin, and sunflowers. There is no evidence that

they had corn. Sunflower seed seems to have been the basis of their

stable economy. They cultivated sunflowers, stored the seed against

a time of need, and consumed large quantities of it.

Adena people were the first to make grit-tempered pottery in

prehistoric times in the Ohio Valley. They were the first to build

large earthworks. These were of such nature that they could hardly

have served for military purposes, which leads one to suspect they

may have had some ceremonial significance. The extent of these

earthworks at any site is often impressive, and is a proof of an or-

ganized society which could produce the manpower able to do a

huge manual task, and could also produce the drive to carry on for

a sufficient time to complete the labor.

That this organization of society was not something peculiar

to a single site but was well understood and effectively adminis-

tered throughout the whole cultural group is borne out by finding

types of earthwork of similar size, form, and construction at many

sites hundreds of miles distant from each other throughout the

Adena area in the Ohio Valley. The so-called "Sacred Circle" of

Squier and Davis is a good example of this uniformity of con-

struction.

The Adena people had very exact burial customs of several forms

for the disposal of the dead. The great majority of the dead were

cremated and the remains buried in a small, low, rectangular log

tomb in their village. These tombs were covered by a low earth

mound. Artifacts of rare forms and, to them, of great value

were frequently buried with the cremated remains. Such arti-

facts were not burned in the crematory fires, but frequently

180 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

180 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

were intentionally "ceremonially" broken before placement with

the dead. A small minority of the Adena dead, a selected group-

how selected we do not know-were reserved for inhumation ex-

tended in the flesh, in somewhat larger log tombs, over each of

which an earth mound was later erected. Frequently large mounds

were the result of the successive addition of the burials in log

tombs, each covered by a new earth fill over it. These log tomb

burials of bodies extended in the flesh were often accompanied by

many beautiful artifacts, showing high artistic ability. Frequently

the whole grave was covered by red ochre. This trait Adena shared

with the earlier Archaic peoples.

Their dwelling houses were circular, varying in diameter from

about thirty-five to fifty-five feet. The posts were set in the earth

in pairs about one foot apart, the pairs being about four and a half

feet apart. The roof was made of bark and there was a smoke pole

for a central fire on the house floor.

Similarly constructed houses of about sixty-five to ninety feet

in diameter were used for community service and have been con-

sidered townhouses.

The fact that many characteristic Adena traits are found in

somewhat diluted form in late Archaic suggests that early Adena

man may have been contemporary with the late Archaic sites.

Equally characteristic Adena traits, sometimes more highly

specialized and showing long development, are found on sites of

Ohio Hopewell, which suggests that late Adena may have had con-

tact or other cultural relations with early Ohio Hopewell.

Since most Adena people at death were cremated, there remains

for study by the physical anthropologist only the skeletons of those

selected individuals who for reasons unknown were entitled to, or

who received, log tomb burials in the flesh.

Adena skeletons from this select company show that they were

a larger, more robust, head deforming group. Their flat back heads

are in contrast to the Archaic dwellers on the shell mounds. This

head deformation suggests to the physical anthropologist Central

American influence.

From these Adena log tomb burials, which are often covered with